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4WD indicator DIY

40K views 81 replies 38 participants last post by  Hunter62 
#1 · (Edited)
Well after more experimenting and getting the correct parts I have my 4WD indicator working as I first envisioned it so I decided to do a DIY writeup to help others if they feel so inclined...

Refer to the schematic that shows the wiring I ended up using.

I sourced the TriState common ANODE LEDs from Ebay along with the 1/4 watt 1.5k resistor. Using 4 conductor RGB color coded wire I soldered with heat shrink a 3 foot section of wire to the LED. The common 12v wire was cut about 8 inches down the wire and the resistor inserted at this point so it wouldn't interfere with the LED mounting. Resistor was covered with heat shrink tubing.

Next I removed the instrument surround piece ( you can push up on the top dash piece to get access to the two top screws and remove the toll card holder for the 3rd screw, bottom right held by push clip) so that I could notch the area right above the DIC readout. This is the area the LED will get mounted.

I measured the distance from the two standoff pins, subtracted the LED width and then measured 1/2 that distance to mark with tape so that I could dremel out a slot for the LED. You may not need to notch the surround. At least on mine there is a small gap between the surround and the clear bezel. Enough that the LED would fit without notching.

Mounted the LED and routed the wire around the surround. The standoffs have small rubber tips pushed onto them, remove the left rubber tip, route the wire behind the standoff and then reinstall the tip to hold the wire in place.

Next I masked off the backside of the LED to stop reflections in the final mounting position. This can be done with electrical tape or paint. Either way shield the backside, both sides and the top flat portion of the LED, there will be enough of the LED sticking up past the surround to show the light.

Reinstall the instrument surround routing the wiring to the bottom left edge of the instrument cluster.

Now I moved to the actual wiring on the S77 4WD switch. The wire used is RGB color coded and I ran each color wire to it's respective LED color in the TriColor LED. I stripped and soldered my wiring to the switch. Refer to the schematic for connections. You may wish to use different colors for the different 4WD selections than I did. I choose Blue for 2Hi because it fit in with the Colorado instrument lighting best. I used Red for 4Hi and Green for 4Lo. Also those of you that have Canyons you could choose to use one of the colors to indicate the auto setting if you like but you only get 3 colors of indication. For example you could choose Green for Auto, Red for 4Hi and Blue for 2Hi etc. I wrapped the connections with electrical tape and then black fabric tape to get the factory wiring loom look back. Test before reassembling everything.

If anyone else would like to do this mod and has a problem getting the parts, get ahold of me via PM here and I can supply you with the needed items (I bought 100 of each). I will send you the LED, resistor, 3 ft of wire, and a short piece of fabric tape for $10 shipped. If multiple people are interested and don't want to make up their own assembly I am planning on either making or having made some small circuit boards to mount the LED, resistor and wire on that will make assembling and the positioning of the LED easier. Once I get the circuit boards made I will sell a completed assembly for $20 shipped. You will still need to notch the mounting location and wire into the switch.

Any questions ask away.
 

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#2 ·
Here are some additional images taken during the process.
 

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#3 · (Edited)
Here are the instructions for installing the circuit board assembly that I have available to order. Remove the instrument surround before starting this.

First paint the back, sides, and top of the LED to block extraneous light from escaping after mounted. The photos are NOT covered well enough, I added two more coats after taking these pictures. The top and back edge are the most important. You want to leave the face of the LED that faces the front of the car, or faces the circuit board, to be left clear! see picture.

Next place a piece of electrical tape over the copper side of the circuit board. This isn't required as the surround is plastic but it won't hurt.

Next remove the rubber nub from the surround and position the wire behind the stud (where the rubber nub was) and slip the circuit board in between the surround pieces.

Position it so the LED is level and then put a piece of electrical tape across the back side to hold it in place. Remember to replace the rubber nub on the stud before reinstalling in dash.

You can test the final install before hooking it up in the vehicle by using a 9 volt battery, positive to the black lead and ground to each of the others will light that color wire's respective LED color.

That's it, any questions just ask.

Thanks all
 

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#4 · (Edited)
Videos (you may want top turn off audio, the door beeping gets old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS8HdU-Zpek&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E85KRBeiQ04&feature=youtu.be

USING only 1 or 2 of the 3 LEDs:
Also incase anyone decides to use this with only 2 of the 3 or 1 of the 3 LEDs being used there is an additional modification needed.
You will need to connect a resistor for each color LED from the LED lead to the 12v source (black wire). Also whatever wires you do hook up the the switch for your sources leads (red, green or blue wires) needs to have the wire cut that goes to the switch (this will disable the LED on the switch itself for those settings. In other words cut the lead that goes to pins 7,8,9, or 10 for the ones you end up using and attach the wire from the LED board to the opposite end of the wire (not the switch side) only. If you don't do this you will get a slight LED glow when in the no light up position.

The Red LED needs a 3K ohm 1/8 watt resistor
The Blue LED needs a 1.5K ohm 1/8 watt resistor
The Green LED needs a 1.5K ohm 1/8 watt resistor
 
#8 · (Edited)
We don't have the Auto mode in the Colorado. Also using a triColor LED you only get 3 colors to use as indicators. There is also a neutral connection available on the switch (S77).

You could use 3 or 4 or more individual LEDs instead of the TriColor LED that I choose, I just didn't want to add multiple LEDs so I went with the single multiColored one.

And for anyone wondering, yes this is an RGB LED but multiple colors (beyond Red Green and Blue) are not possible when working with the existing 4WD indicator configuration.
 

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#40 ·
We don't have the Auto mode in the Colorado. Also using a triColor LED you only get 3 colors to use as indicators. There is also a neutral connection available on the switch (S77).

You could use 3 or 4 or more individual LEDs instead of the TriColor LED that I choose, I just didn't want to add multiple LEDs so I went with the single multiColored one.

And for anyone wondering, yes this is an RGB LED but multiple colors (beyond Red Green and Blue) are not possible when working with the existing 4WD indicator configuration.


Reading this I have a question that I didn't see already answered and wondering if we have enough info to determine?

If we didn't care about having a color for each switch position and just needed a "some flavor of 4WD is engaged" indicator could we wire a single led to PIN 12? PIN 12 would seem to be in use when any of the 4WD position is active, no?
It seems like it would work for 4HI and 4LOW but; would it still light up for Auto?
 
#11 ·
Excellent write up, step by step instructions, attention to details (wire colour matches LED) and final assembly.
Good job!
 
#14 ·
Nice work! A+

I was driving to work about a week ago in the snow (Yes, we got snow April 30) and was switching between 2wd and 4wd a couple times based on varied road conditions (some areas were dry, some still snowpacked) and was trying to figure out a good place for an led indicator.... I kind of landed on exactly where you put one. I might be more tempted to do this now that someone else has figured out the wiring (the hard part)
 
#15 ·
Well after more experimenting and getting the correct parts I have my 4WD indicator working as I first envisioned it so I decided to do a DIY writeup to help others if they feel so inclined...

Refer to the schematic that shows the wiring I ended up using.

I sourced the TriState common ANODE LEDs from Ebay along with the 1/4 watt 1.5k resistor. Using 4 conductor RGB color coded wire I soldered with heat shrink a 3 foot section of wire to the LED. The common 12v wire was cut about 8 inches down the wire and the resistor inserted at this point so it wouldn't interfere with the LED mounting. Resistor was covered with heat shrink tubing.

Next I removed the instrument surround piece ( you can push up on the top dash piece to get access to the two top screws and remove the toll card holder for the 3rd screw, bottom right held by push clip) so that I could notch the area right above the DIC readout. This is the area the LED will get mounted.

I measured the distance from the two standoff pins, subtracted the LED width and then measured 1/2 that distance to mark with tape so that I could dremel out a slot for the LED.

Mounted the LED and routed the wire around the surround. The standoffs have small rubber tips pushed onto them, remove the left rubber tip, route the wire behind the standoff and then reinstall the tip to hold the wire in place.

Next I masked off the backside of the LED to stop reflections in the final mounting position. This can be done with electrical tape or paint. Either way shield the backside, both sides and the top flat portion of the LED, there will be enough of the LED sticking up past the surround to show the light.

Reinstall the instrument surround routing the wiring to the bottom left edge of the instrument cluster.

Now I moved to the actual wiring on the S77 4WD switch. The wire used is RGB color coded and I ran each color wire to it's respective LED color in the TriColor LED. I stripped and soldered my wiring to the switch. Refer to the schematic for connections. You may wish to use different colors for the different 4WD selections than I did. I choose Blue for 2Hi because it fit in with the Colorado instrument lighting best. I used Red for 4Hi and Green for 4Lo. Also those of you that have Canyons you could choose to use one of the colors to indicate the auto setting if you like but you only get 3 colors of indication. For example you could choose Green for Auto, Red for 4Hi and Blue for 2Hi etc. I wrapped the connections with electrical tape and then black fabric tape to get the factory wiring loom look back. Test before reassembling everything.

If anyone else would like to do this mod and has a problem getting the parts, get ahold of me via PM here and I can supply you with the needed items (I bought 100 of each). I will send you the LED, resistor, 3 ft of wire, and a short piece of fabric tape for $10 shipped. If multiple people are interested and don't want to make up their own assembly I am planning on either making or having made some small circuit boards to mount the LED, resistor and wire on that will make assembling and the positioning of the LED easier. Once I get the circuit boards made I will sell a completed assembly for $20 shipped. You will still need to notch the mounting location and wire into the switch.

Any questions ask away.


Thanks for the writeup and the the effort in finding the correct wires, I have two questions, if you don't mind:


1- So, those pins are ground and that is why you used a Common Anode LED, correct?
2- If yes, are they affected when you dim the rest of the display panel?


Thanks again.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Yes they (S77 pins 8,9,10) are grounded when activated, thus the use of common anode.

No they are not affected by the dimming since I used ignition power for the supply (S77 pin 2). I had originally planned on using pin 5 (LED dimming control) but that has no power when it is light out which wouldn't work and pin 4, indicator dimming control didn't seem to work.

Problem was finding a dimmable source that still supplied power when light out. Also I wanted to limit my connections to switch S77 and those are the only choices on it.
 
#22 ·
Anybody interested in ordering the parts....I can either send just the LED, Resistor and wire (unassembled) for $10 shipped or I can send a small circuit board with the LED, resistor and wire soldered to the board as an assembly for $20 shipped. Right now I do not have the boards yet so if that is the option you choose you will need to wait awhile. I will attempt to make the boards this weekend but that may not be successful (its been a long time since I made a circuit board). I also have some ordered that will take up to 3 weeks to get. So worst case 3 weeks, best case this weekend. If you want just the parts I can ship those out right away. Thanks
 
#23 ·
This is awesome.

I am assuming you can do no color in 2wd, and blue for both 4hi and 4lo. I like to keep the color scheme the same as OEM and would use this more as a "hey, your in 4wd" indicator. I would just change the LED to a blue only one (not RGB) and connect it to both pin 9 and 10?

I love customization like this!
 
#27 ·
Question on this.

If you leave the truck in 4WD when you turn it off does the led remain illuminated or do they go out?

IE Is the circuit that youre tapping into hot when off like the MyLink?
 
#28 ·
Thanks for putting the effort in to figure this out, this is something GM should of provided from the factory on the 4WD trucks! :sad:

Subscribed in case I feel ambitious enough to tackle this one day! ;-)
 
#33 · (Edited)
A big "Thank You" to Warpster for the help getting me set up. I made two changes to his DIY I thought I would share. First, when installed, the LED element sticks up quiet a bit so I took off 2-3 mm off of the top with my Dremel. Now the LED stick up above the plastic about 2 mm.

The second thing I did was to apply black electricians tape to the LED and the opening where the circuit board fits. I applied several coats of paint but I always had light coming out at the top edge of the LED. This completely blocks out all reflected lighting.

And one tip to anyone who does not want to cut/solder wires. Get yourself some Posi-Taps off of E-Bay. Makes the job simple. Posi-Tap- No Crimp Tap
 

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